Between 1955 and 1991, there
has been a major departure in the way of looking at social
democracy by NC. Due to changes in the international environment
and worldwide change in values, the stress has been on
individual initiatives rather than doctrinaire social
democracy. There is a gap between theoretical training
given to party workers and socio-economic policies adopted
during party conventions. Neither the central committee
nor the cabinet has endorsed these policies.

Currently, there is a contradictory
perception on the style of party functioning. There are
some that claim that a gradual shift from leader-oriented
practices to organizational practices in the conduct of
party affairs has taken root, and the party is operating
according to its constitution and organizational set up.
There are others who still believe that the highest-ranking
leaders have total sway on the party and that the democratization
process is subservient to the leaders’ decisions. At any
rate, the party faces two major challenges that have persisted
for a long time, namely evaluation of members and enforcement
of discipline among party members from top to bottom.

The CPN-UML is a cadre-based
party. It is the second largest party in the country with
68 seats in the House of Representatives. It advocates
a unique brand of left ideology, known as People’s
Multi-party Democracy, which was propounded by the
late charismatic leader Madan
Bhandari. The party is committed to competitive multi-party
system but firmly believes that power can be attained
through elections by winning over rival bourgeois parties.
Often there are accusations made against the party for
taking a revisionist line or that its party workers are
behaving like "democrats" or "deviationists". The party
overlooks these charges as it claims to maintain its image
by striving peacefully to attain the ultimate goal of
communism.

Presently, there are some
reservations shown by the party on the constitution of
the country but it believes it can still co-exist with
the monarchy without any confrontation. It is prepared
to compromise with the King in order to safeguard nationalism
and promote development. Unlike in China where political
parties are marginalized and are subservient to the Communist
party, the CPN-UML will allow political parties to operate
freely in Nepal when it comes to power.

The RPP is fully committed
to pluralistic democracy, supporting constitutional monarchy,
nationalism and economic liberalization. It is struggling
between two poles: whether to discard past values altogether
or to continue some traits that it sees valid, especially
the features of nationalism.

The RPP leadership factor
is uniquely personalistic as many of its top members had
played influential role during the Panchayat era. When
the RPP was formed in 1990, the need to switch over to
democratic behaviour was quite taxing to those in leadership.
Learning democratic practices in the management of the
party was hard lesson for them in the new environment
of multi-party culture as past hangovers had to be discarded.
The command structure of the party is overwhelmingly influenced
by personalities more than party ideology and people-based
programmes. Often, there are compromises at work when
problems of enforcing discipline in the party arise. The
bottom-up approach to leadership formation has not developed
though some new strategies have been formulated to streamline
the party on a more rational basis.

Given the predominance of
the rural sector in the national economy, with 80% of
the people rural based, Nepal Sadhbhavana Party stresses
on the need to empower rural people by making them aware
of their rights under the new constitution. The party
strives to put every active member to work in the rural
sector for at least two weeks in a month. The justification
for such a step is that there has been erosion of the
culture of sacrifice. Partly this has been due to the
rise of individualism during the thirty years of autocratic
Panchayat rule when anyone addressing national issues
had to face suppression and even imprisonment. Under the
present democratic set up, the scope for reform exists
though there are constitutional obstacles to issues raised
by the party. Fundamentally, these issues cannot be resolved
through simple enactment of present laws. Several reasons
are cited for the lacuna. First, there are legal disputes
on citizenship even for those who have been citizens for
over twenty years. Second, the redundant Panchayat laws
continue to operate. Third, the unitary structure of government
cannot represent the interest and aspirations of the common
people, including those living in the Terai. Fourth, there
is rampant social and economic exploitation of the Terai
where existing land reform laws and electoral system are
inadequate as they cannot fully represent the actual population
size. Finally, there is poor recruitment of the Terai
people, especially in the army. The NSP demands a federal
structure of government so that there is a greater national
cohesion, unity and sense of well being among the people
of Nepal. An amendment to the constitution is essential
in order to guarantee the right of equality of citizens
without any discrimination. The legitimate citizens of
the Terai cannot be deprived of citizenship right.